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| County supervisors scold LA Sheriff at hearing on inmate deaths |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 05/17/2004 |
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County supervisors criticized Sheriff Lee Baca at a public hearing and called for a wide-ranging investigation of jail operations following the strangling of a man who testified against a fellow inmate in a murder case. The supervisors expressed anger last Wednesday over five killings in a six-month period in downtown jails, saying the deaths were symptoms of mismanagement and lack of accountability at county jails. In one of the most highly publicized cases, inmate Raul Tinajero was strangled April 20 at the Men's Central Jail just weeks after testifying against fellow inmate Santiago Pineda in a 2002 murder case. Pineda, 23, was charged last Tuesday with killing the principal witness against him. Baca told the Los Angeles Times, which first reported the case, that Pineda wandered the jail undetected for up to five hours while he allegedly searched for Tinajero. A judge had ordered Tinajero, 20, to be held in protective custody following his testimony, which meant he was to be placed in a one-man cell apart from the general jail population. He was found dead in a six-man cell. County supervisors have asked for a grand jury investigation of the Tinajero killing. The board reacted with anger last Wednesday in both public and closed-door hearings to four other jailhouse killings since October 2003. |
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